[Tutor] puzzling traceback -- what to do with it?

[Bill Mill]

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 02:02:22 -0500, Brian van den Broek
<bvande at po-box.mcgill.ca> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just ran a program of mine and got the traceback:
> 
> >>>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>    File "C:\PYTHON24\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 233, in asyncqueue
>      self.putmessage((seq, request))
>    File "C:\PYTHON24\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 333, in putmessage
>      raise IOError
> IOError
> 
> This stumps me, as I've almost no idea what rpc.py, putmessage, and
> asyncqueue are. (A quick glance at the code made me realize my
> code-reading skills and knowledge of IDLE aren't up to tracking this
> down on my own.)
> 
> Furthermore, the code that produced this runs just fine via other
> methods (running from within SciTe, the python command line, etc.)
> And, sometimes, but not always, closing the offending code, running
> something else, and then trying again with the code that caused the
> traceback makes it work.
> 
> I'm thinking IDLE bug, but also that it would be a good idea to
> solicit opinions/expertise here before running off screaming BUG to
> the IDLE folks :-)
> 

Looks like an IDLE bug to me. Either it's a bug with them, or you're
interfering with something they do; either way it looks like those
guys are likely gonna have to help you out. The fact that the errors
are in idlelib leads me to this conclusion - unless you're importing
idlelib into your program, an error there is an error with idle.

Having used IDLE (maybe) once or twice, you should take this with a
grain of salt, but asking them about this error seems to be a good
bet.

> Any suggestions for what the problem might be, or how to narrow it
> down before reporting?

I would just give them a link to the smallest bit of source code you
can get to reproduce this problem, and an exact list of steps for how
to repeat it consistently. Also tell them your OS, python version, and
IDLE version.

I'm also assuming you already googled the traceback and searched their
mailing list to see if it's a well-known problem.

Peace
Bill Mill
bill.mill at gmail.com